NBA veteran Jason Collins, left, the first active player in one of four major U.S. professional sports leagues to come out as gay, marches in Boston’s gay pride parade alongside U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, a college roommate, Saturday, June 8, 2013, in Boston. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm) BOSTON (AP) — NBA veteran center Jason Collins, the first active athlete in one of the four U.S. major professional sports leagues to come out as being gay, marched Saturday for nearly three miles in Boston’s gay pride parade with U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, his onetime roommate at Stanford University.

HEALING SERVICE–President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attend the “Healing Our City: An Interfaith Service” at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, April 18, dedicated to those who were gravely wounded or killed in Monday’s bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh) by Julie PaceAP White House CorrespondentWASHINGTON (AP) — For President Barack Obama, one of his most wrenching White House weeks saw the fresh specter of terrorism and the first crushing political defeat of his new term, and the more emotional side of a leader often criticized for appearing clinical or detached.

By LZ Granderson GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (CNN) — If September 11, 2001, was the day everything changed, then April 15, 2013, serves as another reminder of that change, of our frailties and of a new reality in which “it can’t happen here” has been replaced by “it can happen anywhere.”

DIVISIVE TIME–In this 1974 file photo, police guard while Black students board a school bus as Boston begins a school busing program. (AP Photo/Peter Bregg, File) by Bridget Murphy BOSTON (AP) — Last fall, Ginnette Powell traveled from her home in Boston’s Dorchester section to her old middle school in South Boston — a journey of just two miles, but one that covered a huge emotional distance. Finally, she was able to leave the painful past behind.